1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to biosensor package structures with a micro-fluidic channel, and more particularly to a biosensor package structure with a micro-fluidic channel applicable to bioassay of biomedical samples.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, in response to the progress of biotechnology, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMSs) have been developed to downsize otherwise large biochemical analysis instruments and integrate the microminiaturized biochemical analysis instruments into small chips, so as to reduce consumption of biomedical samples, avoid errors out of human operation, speed up assay processes, and improve assay accuracy.
A known technology in the art refers to the disclosure of Taiwan Patent No. I252839 for a manufacturing method of a microchip and the microchip manufactured by the method. Therein, the microchip comprises a substrate, a photoresist layer, an electrode unit, and a panel.
The photoresist layer is formed on the surface of the substrate while including a recess unit and a channel unit, wherein the recess unit has a plurality of recesses extending from the surface of the photoresist layer toward the substrate, and the channel unit includes a plurality of channels extending from the surface of the photoresist layer toward the substrate.
The electrode unit comprises a plurality of electrodes. Each of the electrodes has a contact portion and a control portion, wherein the contact portion is formed between the substrate and the photoresist layer while the control portion extends toward the periphery of the substrate and is exposed to the photoresist layer. Moreover, a portion of the electrodes have their contact portions exposed to corresponding said channels while the other electrodes have their contact portions corresponding in position to respective liquid tanks. A voltage is applied to the contact portion of each said electrode to form an electric field acting around the recess unit and the channel unit.
The panel is closely affixed to the photoresist layer so as to form each said liquid tank together with each said recess of the recess unit for accommodating a liquid, and form a micro-fluidic channel together with each said channel of the channel unit for allowing the liquid to flow therethrough.
When the electric field is formed by applying a voltage to the electrodes, the liquid in the liquid tanks corresponding in position to the electrodes is delivered to a predetermined liquid tank through the corresponding micro-fluidic channels under the effect of the electric field. When flowing in the micro-fluidic channel, the liquid is in contact with the contact portion of the electrode corresponding in position to the micro-fluidic channel.
To manufacture the microchip, a conductive adhesive is formed on the substrate by screen printing so as to function as the electrode unit, and the photoresist layer with a plurality of micro-fluidic channels is formed on the substrate and the electrode unit by lithography. Finally, by pressing and attaching the panel to the photoresist layer, the microchip is accomplished.
However, the conventional microchip structure entails complex processing procedures such as the aforesaid screen printing technology for forming the conductive adhesive on the substrate, physical coating processes, chemical coating processes, or combinations thereof to form the electrodes, but also requires an advance layout of masks before forming the photoresist layer with the micro-fluidic channels by lithography. Therefore, the conventional microchip structure is disadvantageous by its specific design and complex manufacturing processes and thus is unsuitable for mass production.